NEW SINGLE
The Wreckage
Hi Charles, welcome back to VQS! Tell us a little bit about you and your music.
I am a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist currently based out of Orange County. I relocated from South Carolina back in 2018. The Wreckage is my debut record, and it definitely covers the wide range of influences I have stylistically. My goal with this album was to take the listener on a story arc that starts out strong and heavy, dips down into melancholy, and then lifts you up before it’s over. The audience might have fun trying to pin down my influences. I can confidently say that the common thread is my desire to tell meaningful stories as honestly as I can.
Congrats on the release! What was your inspiration when you were writing this song? Released 8/7/20. I remember very well writing this one at the desk in my third story apartment about four blocks away from the Atlantic Ocean. This song is largely inspired by my struggle to reconcile being a person of faith who struggles with depression. It is really an honest, desperate cry for clarity and peace in the midst of a very dark season in my life. When I finished writing the rough draft, I remember my head hitting the desk, and I started weeping. It would be the last song I wrote for eight months until I moved cross country.
What is your vision for this song? What lessons would you like to impart with your audience?
My hope for this song is that it would ultimately provide a sense of genuine comfort and understanding to those who also struggling with various degrees of mental health hurdles.
The Wreckage is the turning point, not only on the album but in my personal journey as well. The overall themes of this album revolve around value, identity, and worth. The Wreckage is the place where my ideas of those things were deconstructed and redefined in some real, soul-shaking ways. I hope the listener experiences the same freedom to explore their own ideas about identity and come out on the other end a better, truer version of themselves.
What is your favorite part of the song?
My favorite part in the song is actually the melody on the acoustic guitar in between verses. When I wrote that, it was one of those sweet surprises that poured right out of me. It just felt like the glue that held everything together. Then when we recorded it in the studio, my favorite part became the addition of my good friend Tavia. She made the song 1,000 times better with her voice.
Anything else we should know about it? Future releases? Upcoming events?
As soon as live shows are allowed again, then you better believe I will be back on a stage. In the meantime, I will continue to focus on writing new songs. I have been doing more co-writes over Face Time and Zoom. You can expect to hear some cool new collaborations with some super talented songwriters in my circle.
Start streaming “The Wreckage” right here:
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